


It's Gonna Be Weird

by Dorktapus42



Category: Gravity Falls, Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: ... written on a plane. Because of course, Crossover, In the works for awhile so... enjoy!, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-16 02:58:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18512494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dorktapus42/pseuds/Dorktapus42
Summary: A Gravity Falls and Welcome To Nightvale Crossover.Cecil does not remember Gravity Falls.But he has been there before.ORWhere is the perfect Carlos from?Weird that he didn't react as strongly as others to the inherent strangeness of Nightvale...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I started this ages ago.  
> Welp. It's finally done!
> 
> That is my only explanation for the blatant tone shift near the end. Oh well. I hope you enjoy!

Cecil was on the highway. He really needed to stop visiting friends so far away from Nightvale… He’d already missed one of his recording days. Oh, hey, there was a dinner opportunity. He was starving. He looked at the sign of the exit as he drove down the little road. Interesting looking place.

Gravity Falls, huh? Cool name. Nothing like Nightvale though. Way better than stupid Desert Bluffs. Who would think a name like that was good? 

He drove into town. Parked in the parking lot of a decent-looking diner. He had just gotten out of the car when he saw something that made no sense and froze. Well, something that made no sense even to his standards had to be rather strange indeed. 

And indeed it was. 

There was a small group of tiny little men staring straight back at him, one holding a giant pie high above his little bearded head. The pie was of a rather normal size, proving the men to be incredibly small indeed.

“Uhhh… you’re dreaming! We’re not here!” The little tower of men descended and started backing out of the parking lot towards a clump of bushes. “None of this is real!”

They disappeared into the bushes quickly. With a rustle they were gone like they had never been there. 

Cecil blinked then shook his head. Either he was hallucinating, or he’d just seen a bunch of gnomes. Well wasn’t that a story to tell at home. 

Or maybe he should just drink to forget.

He went into the diner and ordered his meal. 

By the time he’d finished the sun had set. Huh. Normally he hated driving in the dark, but it was either that or go to a hotel or something…

He paid and left to walk out to his car. His feet crunched on the gravel and his car was just in sight. The bushes rustled even though there was no wind. 

“Oh gosh- erm, hello? Is anybody there?” He called out. The bushes stopped moving long enough that he almost called it some kind of animal. Or more of those tiny men. 

Then he heard footsteps behind him. He turned to see a few figures in hooded robes. He almost thought they were hooded figures if not for the golden eye symbol on the hoods. And the fact that they were not in his friendly little desert community. 

Let’s just say that he’s forgotten most of that experience. The little men? Dismissed as a dream. There’s probably a dusty little bottle of memories labeled CECIL PALMER lying in a secret room covered in other little bottles. 

But there’s just been a feeling he couldn’t shake since then… something in the back of his brain that made the hairs on his neck stand up whenever he was alone for too long. 

Every once and a while he’d get phantom images of things he’d forget a few seconds later, the memories water flowing through his fingers. A few headaches. Nothing to worry about, right? 

Until he stayed up too late one night talking with perfect, perfect Carlos. 

 

\-----

 

“Hey Carlos?”

“Yeah? What’s up Cecil?”

“Weird question- well, weird as in that it’s strange I’ve never asked it before, not weird as in- nevermind. Where is the mysterious Carlos from?” 

Carlos laughed. “Oh, it’s a small town in the middle of Oregon, you’ve probably never even heard of it. Called Gravity Falls.” 

Cecil blinked as the name registered faint recognition somewhere in his mind. “Gravity Falls? I think I’ve been there, actually.”

Carlos looked over at him from where he was washing dishes. “Really? You’ve left Nightvale? I’m not sure whether I can believe that.” He gave a laugh in friendly disbelief, his smile echoed in his perfect voice. 

“Believe it or not I have family and friends outside of Nightvale. I think I drove through for… food? Gas? It’s weird. I can’t seem to remember.” He frowned in concentration. 

“Well I wouldn’t worry about it Cecil. Those sorts of things do tend to get away from you. Especially in Gravity Falls. I can’t tell you how many times I was walking around the forest and couldn’t remember what I saw the next day.” 

Cecil’s brain whirred. “Carlos? I sense a conspiracy.”

Carlos laughed. “Cecil! There’s no conspiracy, just me and my bad memory.”

Cecil had to admit to that. “I mean, it’s probably nothing. I can’t even remember half of what happens in Nightvale without looking back at my recordings, so I  _ suppose _ that I can let it go. For now.”

“Of course it’s for now. I don’t know why I expected anything less. Do you want to pull up a recording of-”

“- the annual Hooded Figure Event that happens once a year on Halloween exactly?”

“Yep. I can go get the popcorn.” 

“I’ll pull up the recording.” 

The discussion faded away into their memories soon enough. 

 

\-------

 

“Hey Cecil? Do you want to go on a vacation?”

Cecil looked up. “Carlos, do you know how hard it is to get a vacation approved with Station Management?”

“...Is that a no?”

Cecil put his watercolors aside. “No, no, I’d love to go somewhere with you. Just… keep in mind a couple of things.”

“Oh? And what are those?” Carlos sat up on his end of the couch. 

He gestured to his forehead, where his Eye was hidden by his hair. “Exhibit A.” Carlos let out a snicker. Cecil shrugged, knowing his perfect boyfriend could barely see the Eye even in good lighting, and where they were sitting was not good lighting. He shrugged. “Also that it can take months to get a vacation approved. If we’re lucky it could be a few days at the least but-”

The doorbell rang and something slid through the letter flap in his door. Carlos went to get it and opened the letter. His eyebrows climbed his forehead. “It’s approved.” 

“Wait, what? Let me see that.” 

Sure, enough, nothing was on the paper except the words:  **Go on your vacation. You have four days. GO. GET OUT GETOUTGETOUT** \- and then nothingness. Pretty standard. 

“O-Okay then. When do you want to go?”

Carlos looked at the clock and back with a smile. “We could get there in about six hours if there isn’t any traffic.”

“Don’t tell me-“

“So how about in half an hour?”

Cecil stopped short in his thought process. “That wasn’t the ‘Now’ that I was expecting.”

“Come on Cece, I’m reasonable. Half an hour to pack a few outfits and things. Plenty of time.”

Cecil rolled his eyes. “Fine, you win. I’ll meet you by the car in a bit.” He got up and put his brush back in his kit. He received Carlos’s perfect smile as he moved towards his room. He’d cherish that smile. But he needed to pack. 

 

———-

 

They had been driving for ages. Cecil had already finished his painting and was staring out the window. Carlos was trying to tell him about the scientific aspects of the town they were headed towards but Cecil had ended up dozing off halfway through. So Carlos just smiled at him and drove on in silence. 

Cecil woke up when the car stopped, cheek red from the window he’d been leaning against. He rubbed it and frowned before his attention was caught by a weird-looking rock formation. Was that a flying saucer-?

“Oh, it’s great to be back home!”

Cecil scrambled out of the car at the sound of Carlos’s voice. “Carlos? What exactly is that-“ He trailed off at the sight of a rabbit. There were quite a few animals here, weren’t there? The rabbit hopped away, and he swore he saw that it had antlers. 

“What is what Cecil?”

He shook his head to jar his thought process back into place. “Uh- that rock formation. How do you think that was formed?”

Carlos grinned. “I’m not a geologist, but I could probably make a guess. There must have been some point of erosion…” 

Perfect Carlos talked about freezing and rain while Cecil tried to gather his thoughts. Why was this place so… strange? He felt like there was something he couldn’t remember…

He tried to think about what it was while Carlos drove to a homely-looking inn. 

He was silent as his companion booked a room for the nights they were staying. His brows furrowed as he tried to remember what it was…

_ Okay Cecil. You can remember this. You went to go get food, right? Okay, food… food… what was it? _

He smacked himself in the forehead with the palm of his hand. “What is it?!” Then he winced at the pain. Why did he do that...

“What’s what Cecil?”

“What can’t I remember?”

“Okay… try talking to me. What can you remember?”

Cecil started to pace in their little room. “I drove into town for some food. Went to a little diner- the food was pretty good for being in the middle of nowhere.”

“Greasy’s? Their food is great.”

“Something happened on the way in- something strange, even for me.”

“Well that certainly must have been strange. Even for you?”

“Even for me. I can’t really- pie? Something to do with a stolen pie.”

“Well there  _ are _ a lot of things that would steal pie. Small children…”

Cecil froze. “Tiny men?”

“If they had the incentive- wait, what?”

“I think I just saw a group of tiny men.”

Cecil crossed over to the window and opened it. “HEY! TINY MEN!” He called out. With that diaphragm he could be an actor. He was the voice of Nightvale for a reason.

The little figures froze. Cecil looked down. Only a story from the ground. He was out and dropping onto the ground from his fingertips before Carlos could react. He crossed the yard. “Hey, I just wanted to talk to you about-“

“Shmebulock!”

The gnomes were gone in a flurry of motion. Cecil booked it after them while Carlos gave a long sigh. There was no way he was going to find him… he should just wait until he came back. 

 

Cecil came back around the time night was falling. Carlos looked up from his notes. “Any luck?”

Cecil shook his head and grabbed his watercolor set. “Unfortunately not. They’re surprisingly fast for being about a foot tall. Do you have any extra sheets of paper?”

Carlos slid him a couple as Cecil tore apart one of his sheets of watercolour paper. “Getting your science on?”

“Yep.” He muttered as he sketched with a brush in his mouth. “Tape?”

“Surprisingly, yes.” Carlos rummaged in his bag before sliding some over. The radioman tore off a piece and attached the picture to his piece of notepaper. 

  
  


Cecil looked at the piece of paper taped to the wall and paced. 

“You really think this is a conspiracy.”

“Carlos. Perfect, perfect Carlos. Do you doubt my methods?”

“No, but I’m starting to question your sense of self-preservation.”

Cecil clapped his hands and pointed at him. “Okay. You lived here for years. Did you notice anything?”

“Related to the gnomes? I don’t think so. But I don’t really remember.”

“Why are we forgetting things?” Cecil mused, sitting on the bed. 

“It was years ago. I don’t really expect to remember-“

“You don’t remember something that strange? Isn’t that suspicious?”

Carlos closed his eyes. They opened after a few minutes of silence. 

“There was one thing. About three days in late summer one year. It’s all a total blank. I guess that’s strange.”

“So there is something you can’t explain!” Cecil said as if that solved everything.

“That still could be contributed to a bad memory.”

“But I know you Carlos! You still remember what we had to eat on our first date! You wouldn’t forget three whole days without a reason!”

“You really expect me to remember every day?” 

“No, that’s ridiculous, but you at least have an idea of what you did that day, yes?”

“I-I guess? Cecil, you’re making too many assumptions-“

“No such thing!” He said loudly in response, waving the piece of paper that had been stuck on the wall.

There was a beat of silence. Carlos came over and took the piece of paper out of his hands.

“Aaaand I think that’s enough science time for you.”

“Aww, but Carlos!” Cecil whined as all of the wind in his sails disappeared.

“Maybe we should tackle this tomorrow, okay?”

He sighed. “Fine…”

“Okay. Do you want to go on a walk before we go to sleep?”

Cecil jumped up with renewed vigor. “Yes!”

He ran out the door as Carlos grabbed his jacket. And Cecil’s for good measure, seeing as it was growing rather cold. The scientist followed his boyfriend out into the brisk night air. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOWDY FELLAS!

They were walking on a gravel path at the edge of the forest, following a chain-link fence. Cecil was rambling about his adventure following the gnomes. 

“- and I followed them to this weird house in the woods! I think it had to be a tourist attraction or something, because it had a sign on the roof-”

“You ran all the way to the Mystery Shack? I’m surprised that’s still there.” 

“So that’s what it’s called? Anyway, I ended up losing them near there at this weird mound of rocks- it looked kind of like a triangle had collapsed on itself. You know what that looks like, right? Sort of… angular… and kind of smooth and rocky?”

“Yeah, I know what that looks like. That’s weird though- I don’t remember any weird rock formations in that part of the forest...”

They lapsed into silence as the gravel crunched under their feet. They heard a high-pitched voice in the distance. They sounded annoyed.

_ “Are you happy Pine Tree? We’re going on your little night-hike. The one night Ducktective is on you have to drag me out to see your weird changing constellations? We could look at those any other night!” _

_ “Come on Bill! That show is nothing but reruns now. Besides, Grunkle Ford said something about this being a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity the last time we talked! We have to go see it!” _

“Changing constellations?” Carlos had his science-excitement face on. “Like in the Desert Otherworld? I didn’t know that those could be recreated anywhere else- oh if only I had a pen!” He pat his pockets as he shoved Cecil’s jacket at him with his other arm. “This is such an amazing opportunity- I really thought I had a pen here somewhere!”

Cecil lost the trail of voices as his boyfriend frantically searched for a pen. “But what would you write on? Your arm?”

“No, no, no… dang it! I don’t have a pen! I have notepaper but no pen? I guess I can just try to record my observations later but-”

“HOWDY FELLAS!”

The two of them leapt back in fright as a figure flopped down in front of them, hanging by crooked knees on an above tree branch. His blond hair hung towards the ground, causing the face of a rather pale man to be visible, his unnaturally yellow eye piercing the darkness. Carlos screamed and tried to hide behind Cecil. 

The figure laughed. “THAT’S WHAT YOUR SCREAM SOUNDS LIKE? IT’S ALMOST AS HIGH-PITCHED AS PINE TREE’S! HEY PINE TREE! I FOUND SOME FRIENDS!”

Cecil’s ears rang as a strange image was loaded into his brain. His Eye-?  _ Oh dear gosh what the heck was that?! _

Another figure ran out of the woods and towards them. A teenager?. “Bill! What did I tell you about running off! Not to mention not scaring...” He trailed off. “...people…”

What? Cecil saw his eyes flit up to his forehead. Oh. His Eye must be working overtime looking at… whatever it was. It tended to be visible when that happened. It was weird that Carlos hadn’t commented on it. Granted, his significant other was still freaking out about the fact that a man swung down right in front of them and screamed a greeting. 

The man in yellow was on the ground and in his face in the blink of an eye. The image in the back of his mind only grew stronger with the close proximity- a large floating yellow triangle staring into his eyes, the single eye boring into his.

“OH WOW THERE’S SOMETHING I HAVEN’T SEEN IN A WHILE! HEY PINE TREE-”

“Leave them alone Bill!” The teen in the blue hat- Pine Tree?- pulled the other man away. 

“BUT THAT’S NO FUN! PINE TREE-”

“Bill…” There was an element of warning in the teen’s face. The other figure deflated. 

“But Pine Tree! What am I if not a menace to society?!”

Cecil edged backwards as the two bickered. If only they could get far enough away they could run… 

Now!

He grabbed Carlos’s wrist and sprinted in the other direction as fast as he could. He did not want to deal with whatever the hell Bill was unprepared-

In a flash of blue flames Bill appeared in front of them, grinning. 

“Oh come on, that’s no fun!” The demon said, eye flashing blue. The flames threatened to burn them, barely contained in a ring around the triangle. 

Carlos screamed again at the sudden shock. Cecil moved in front of him, pushing up his sleeves to activate the purple runes inked on his forearms. “Let. Us. Go.”

He wasn’t a level two caster for nothing. 

But he wasn’t sure exactly what this thing was, or how to properly defend against it. His experience was in dreams, not everyday demons. Unless he got really lucky-

Bill recoiled, hissing and glowing. 

Huh. He grabbed Carlos’s arm and booked it. 

As they jumped over a series of tree roots he found himself rambling along with Carlos, who was still generally trying to figure out how Bill could have teleported. 

“How on earth did that work?!”

“How did he teleport?”

“I specialize in dreams, not demons! That shouldn’t have worked!”

“Is that how he teleported? Is he like the Angels-”

“There’s no such thing as angels Carlos! No! Such! Thing! But if he’s a demon how did that- oh no.”

“Oh no? No! No ‘oh no!’ That’s never ended well Cecil!”

“That was only fifteen times! Once is chance, twice is coincidence, thrice is a government plot! I think I’m in the clear here!”

“That’s really not important right now Cecil!”

“Well I’m sorry, we’re running for our lives from a dream demon!”

“If it’s a dream demon can’t you beat it?!”

“I don’t know!”

“What do you mean you don’t know!” It was more than a bit hysterical by the end.

“Please tell me that was a rhetorical question. I am really out of breath because of all the talking and running for our lives. I do not exercise as much as I should, you know that!”

“That’s not the issue here!”

“I dunno-”

“We’re being chased by a teleporting dream demon and you’re complaining because you’re tired of running?!”

“... you have a point.”

“And if it can teleport why the hell are we trying to outrun it?”

“...desperate hope that it takes mercy on us and doesn’t chase after?”

“... Alright, that’s fair. *wheeze* There’s the inn!”

They were almost there when-

A golf club caught Cecil around the ankles and sent him tumbling to the ground. 

“CECIL!”

“Go on without me! I’ll be fine!”

Carlos had just ran off when Cecil noticed who his kidnappers were. 

A group of people in red cloaks and hoods stood silhouetted against the sky.

“Oh dear.”

Were they possible relatives of the Hooded Figures from Nightvale? If only he had a bloodstone- or god forbid knew if they spoke any language known to man-

Then a wrench narrowly missed the nearest one’s head and they all ran away, shrieking. 

Well everybody knows Hooded Figures didn’t make noise. 

He turned to see an army of tiny men. 

His face lit up. 

“Tiny Men!”

“We’re actually gnomes.” Well that was awkward. “I’m Jeff. This is-”

“Shmebulock!”

“Yeah. That’s all he says. That’s Steve, Carson, Jason, Mike, Andy-”

“There are… a lot of you.”

“Thank you. Would you like to be our Queen?”

Wait, what?

“Um-”

“We’ve been missing one for a very long time, and are starting to grow frantic in our searches to find one.”

He scratched the back of his neck. “Look. I appreciate the offer, but I’m kind of already the voice of a town-”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

A moment of silence. 

“I hope you find one.”

“Thank you.”

They scampered away, and he went into the inn with Carlos. 

It had been a very long day. 

 

\---------

 

It was a shame they hadn’t been able to spend the three days. 

But he had to get back to recording, and Carlos wanted to write down some of what he’d been able to observe of the constellations, and they were, to be honest, a little homesick. And if they were a little fearful of crossing the demon’s path again… who could blame them?

So they drove back, Cecil narrating what was happening at home all the way. 

It was… nice to be back home. 


End file.
